Newbie Q: Windows files to MP3s?

[caseinsensitive]

I have some music files as Windows Media Files (icon = page with Realplayer logo). I want to play them as MP3s in iTunes (on my new MacBook). I downloaded Max, dragged the Max icon into my applications folder, clicked on it, opened the Convert Files window, and the files I want to convert are grayed (ie not selectable). I then tried dragging the files into the File Conversion window, and it doesn't accept them.

So, to talk like a fourteen year-old, I'm like, huh? WTF???? This seems like a fairly basic operation based on what I thought would be a common requirement of a file converter app, so I must be doing something wildly wrong, right?

[sbooth]

You didn't do anything wrong, but Max doesn't support .wmv files.

[DaftUnion]

If you're serious enough to use Max for your music, you should probably just rip your music to mp3 format (if that's the format you want) from the original cd's. Will sound FAR better than what you're tying to do.

Even if .wma conversion worked in Max (which it doesn't), transcoding from one lossy audio format to another is going to sound terrible.

[RonaldPR]

If you have the music files only in WMA format and no original tracks in lossless format, you can try EasyWMA to convert the files to a format that will play in iTunes.
http://www.easywma.com/

[caseinsensitive]

Thanks for the suggestion!
Incidentally, the quality isn't an issue - it's a friend's music, not an audiophile thing. Still, I'm surprised that the app can't handle this.

[Mike1]

Thanks for the suggestion!
Incidentally, the quality isn't an issue - it's a friend's music, not an audiophile thing. Still, I'm surprised that the app can't handle this.

It's not an open standard, and Microsoft won't have made code, or perhaps even the specifications, public. That will make it problematic for anyone else to support it. You can get source-code for the LAME MP3 encoder: it's publicly available. MS won't have published code for a wma encoder/decoder.

As for on the Mac, even Microsoft themselves don't support the format on the Mac, instead their site sends people looking for Windows Media Player for the Mac, in order to play such files, to this third-party vendor, who's cooked something up:

http://www.flip4mac.com/

Staggering when you think about it. And that - which is bascially a plugin for QuickTime - can't handle all the wma versions, anyway.

If Microsoft with their vast resources and their privileged access to code relating to it, can't provide a solution for wma on the Mac ...

[Yonzie]

I thought iTunes converts WMA to AAC (or whatever selected in preferences) on import?
This might only be on Windows, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work on OS X since it's the same code that makes both versions of iTunes.

[Mike1]

I thought iTunes converts WMA to AAC (or whatever selected in preferences) on import?
This might only be on Windows ...

AFAIK, you're right. At least, I haven't tried, since I've never made and haven't got any wma files, but Apple's Support documents say:

When you add unprotected WMA files to your iTunes library (Windows only), iTunes converts them to new files that iTunes can play, based on your import settings.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1347

So on "Windows only", according to Apple.